Transition Strategy and Management Plan

72 Pages·2017·1.31 MB·English

UU..SS.. GGeenneerraall SSeerrvviicceess AAddmmiinniissttrraattiioonn

FFeeddeerraall AAccqquuiissiittiioonn SSeerrvviiccee

Transition Strategy and
Management Plan
(TSMP)

for the

Transition to Enterprise Infrastructure
Solutions (EIS)

Version 5.1
June 28, 2022
This document is hereby authorized for release by the General Services Administration.

7/5/2022
X
Frederick T Haines for:
Tracey Malick
Acting Executive Director, Office of Enterpris...
Signed by: General Services Administration

Acting Executive Director, Office of Enterprise Technology Solutions
Information Technology Category
General Services Administration
Table of Contents

1 Introduction ........................................................................... 1
1.1 Office of Telecommunications Services ............................................................. 1
1.2 Lessons Learned from Previous Transitions ...................................................... 1
2 Scope ..................................................................................... 2
2.1 Definition of Transition ....................................................................................... 2
2.2 Expiring Contracts .............................................................................................. 2
3 Transition Strategy Management Plan (TSMP) Document
Overview ........................................................................................... 3
3.1 TSMP Objective ................................................................................................. 3
3.2 TSMP Document Scope ..................................................................................... 3
4 Transition Overview ............................................................. 4
4.1 Responsibility ..................................................................................................... 4
4.2 Overview of Transition Strategy ......................................................................... 4
4.2.1 Involvement of the Agency’s highest levels and key functional areas ......... 5
4.2.2 Agency Transition Plan ................................................................................ 5
4.2.3 Early and effective support from GSA to Agencies ...................................... 5
4.2.4 Phased, orderly approach ............................................................................ 6
4.2.5 Transparency and meaningful reporting ...................................................... 6
4.3 Transition Sequence of Activities ....................................................................... 6
4.3.1 Prior To Award Of EIS Contracts ................................................................. 6
4.3.2 After EIS Awards ......................................................................................... 7
4.3.3 Transition Timeline ...................................................................................... 7
5 Transition Roles and Responsibilities .............................. 10
5.1 Major Transition Stakeholders .......................................................................... 10
5.2 Agency Partners ............................................................................................... 11
5.2.1 Agencies’ Major Responsibilities ............................................................... 11
5.2.2 Agencies’ Major Roles ............................................................................... 12
5.3 Telecommunications Suppliers ........................................................................ 14
5.3.1 Telecommunications Suppliers’ Major Roles ............................................. 14
5.3.2 Telecommunications Suppliers’ Major Responsibilities ............................. 14
5.4 GSA ................................................................................................................. 15
5.4.1 GSA Agency Assistance Teams ................................................................ 16
5.4.2 GSA Supplier Assistance Teams ............................................................... 17
5.4.3 GSA Transition Coordination Center (TCC) ............................................... 18
5.4.4 Other GSA Functions Involved In Transition .............................................. 19
5.5 Government Oversight ..................................................................................... 19
5.5.1 Oversight’s Major Roles............................................................................. 20
5.5.2 Oversight’s Major Responsibilities ............................................................. 20
5.6 Stakeholder Register ........................................................................................ 20
6 Transition Assistance to Agencies ................................... 20
6.1 Reduction in GSA Fee ..................................................................................... 21
6.2 Inventory Management .................................................................................... 21
6.3 GSA-Paid Transition Assistance ...................................................................... 21
v.5.1, June 28, 2022 i
6.3.1 GSA-Assisted Transition (GSAAT) ............................................................ 22
6.3.2 Transition Ordering Assistance (TOA) ....................................................... 23
6.3.3 TCC Agency Assistance ............................................................................ 24
6.3.4 Transition Engineering Assistance (TEA) .................................................. 24
7 Master Transition Schedule ............................................... 24
8 Training ............................................................................... 24
9 Progress Tracking and Reporting ..................................... 25
9.1 Dashboards ...................................................................................................... 25
9.2 Transition Entities ............................................................................................. 26
9.3 Tracking Critical Milestones ............................................................................. 26
9.4 Other Transition Progress Measures ............................................................... 27
10 Communications ................................................................. 27
10.1 Contacting GSA ............................................................................................ 27
10.2 Coordination within GSA ............................................................................... 28
10.3 Management Escalation within ETS ............................................................. 28
10.4 Conferences and Collaborative Forums ........................................................ 28
10.5 Executive Oversight ...................................................................................... 29
10.6 Agency Transition Stakeholders ................................................................... 29
11 Transition Support Tools ................................................... 30
11.1 EIS Transition Website ................................................................................. 30
11.2 TI in E-MORRIS ............................................................................................ 30
11.3 Telecommunications Ordering and Pricing System (TOPS) ......................... 31
11.4 GSA Conexus ............................................................................................... 31
11.5 Self-Help Guides and Tools .......................................................................... 31
11.6 Contact Us .................................................................................................... 32
12 Risk Management ............................................................... 32
12.1 Risk Factors .................................................................................................. 32
12.2 Risk Response Planning ............................................................................... 32
12.3 Risk Response Action ................................................................................... 33
12.3.1 What This Means for Agencies............................................................... 33
12.3.2 What This Means for Contractors ........................................................... 34
12.4 Ongoing Risk Management .......................................................................... 34
13 Lessons Learned ................................................................ 34
Appendix A: Expiring Contracts............................................................................. 35
Appendix B: Acronyms .......................................................................................... 44
Appendix C: Transition Entities ............................................................................. 46
Appendix D: Stakeholder Register ........................................................................ 47
Appendix E: Risk Management Plan ..................................................................... 55
Appendix F: Lessons Learned Workflow ............................................................... 57
Appendix G: Prioritized Lessons Learned ............................................................. 58

v.5.1, June 28, 2022 ii
Document Change History

VERSION DATE OF CHANGE AUTHOR EXPLANATION
1.0 9-29-16 D Hren Initial
2.0 1-20-17 D Hren Revised to reflect realigned ITC
and OTS organization and clarify
roles and responsibilities
3.0 3-28-18 D Hren Revised with new approach to full
service and small agency
transitions, description of AAI,
updated transition milestones,
removal of Transition Entity list,
condensed description of risk
management, and other edits to
bring content current since the
awards of EIS and realignment of
the organization.
4.0 6-24-2019 D Hren Updated references to expiration
dates of the contracts with
proposed extensions to 2023.
Updated Transition Timeline.
Updated personnel changes.
Added communications and
coordination with GSA’s PBS.
Minor editorial changes.
5.0 5-30-2022 D Hren Updated background to include
the continuity of service period;
Updated terminology from
previous GSA reorganization
throughout; Updated Transition
Timeline; Updated titles to align
with new organizational structure.
Added descriptions of Transition
Closeout and Continuity of Service
projects.
5.1 6-28-22 D Hren Minor edits resulting from review
of v 5.0

v.5.1, June 28, 2022 iii
1 Introduction
GSA developed this Transition Strategy and Management Plan (TSMP) for managing the
transition from GSA’s current network services contracts to the Enterprise Infrastructure
Solutions (EIS) program. This document addresses the program-level, Government-wide
approach that GSA follows to manage a successful transition to EIS. Success for this
program includes completion of transition prior to the expiration of the current contracts
as extended, in May 2024. In addition, this document advocates the importance of
communication, coordination, collaboration, and cooperation among transition
stakeholders by clearly defining transition roles, addressing key issues impacting
transition, explaining the program management functions supporting transition, and
establishing transition processes and procedures. This comprehensive approach
provides the framework for managing a timely transition to EIS that results in reduced
transition expenses, prompt accrual of cost savings, minimized risk to agencies’ missions,
and expedited opportunities to improve operations.
1.1 Office of Enterprise Technology Solutions
GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) Information Technology Category (ITC)
provides federal agencies access to affordable telecommunications and networking
services and solutions that meet agency mission requirements. Within ITC, GSA’s Office
of Enterprise Technology Solutions (ETS) provides telecommunications and network
services contracts for use by government agencies such as the Networx contracts and
multiple Regional local service contracts (formerly administered by GSA’s regional
offices). As these contracts near the end of their periods of performance, GSA has
established the replacement program and contract vehicles to ensure that
telecommunications services continue to support agencies’ missions without interruption.

Accordingly, GSA completed a follow-on acquisition called EIS to meet agency needs for
the next-generation of telecommunications and related information technology (IT)
services. EIS provides continuity for the services provided by current contracts as well
as a portfolio of new and emerging services. These solutions meet or exceed agency
requirements, provide robust security solutions, conform to Government policies and
standards, and offer competitive pricing. EIS provides continuous competition to satisfy
existing networking operations, emerging requirements, technology refreshment, and
access to innovative solutions. In addition to the requirement to move services off the
expiring contracts, the combination of more services, greater competition, a single source
for wide-area and local services, and improved performance provides significant incentive
to transition to EIS. Furthermore, GSA has created a comprehensive program to assist
agencies, in conjunction with suppliers1, with transitioning services to the replacement
EIS contracts.
1.2 Lessons Learned from Previous Transitions
The transition of telecom services to Networx took longer than expected, and ETS aims

1 Throughout this document, the general term for industry is "supplier," and those suppliers that have a
contract with GSA are more specifically referred to as "contractors."
v.5.1, June 28, 2022 1
to reduce the transition period to EIS. The robust Lessons Learned program from the
transition to Networx, combined with its Risk Management program and the findings of
several Government Accountability Office (GAO) audits, provides ITC with a wealth of
lessons learned to transfer to the transition to EIS. These include:

• Complex acquisition processes and weaknesses in agency transition planning and
execution contributed to delays
• Agencies have limited resources for validating their inventory of active services
that must be transitioned
• Agencies’ selection of contractors averaged more than two years to complete,
thereby delaying transition
• Agencies have insufficient contracting and project management expertise needed
for telecommunications contracts
• Small agencies don’t have resources to dedicate to transition
• Delays resulted in $329M of lost savings for agencies and $18M in additional costs
to GSA to administer two programs (GAO-14-63).

GSA analyzed and prioritized the lessons learned to incorporate into the strategy for
NS2020 and transition to EIS. The lessons themselves are holistically woven into the
plans and guidance GSA has developed. The prioritized lessons learned for the strategy
are attached to this document in Appendix G, and the list of lessons learned specifically
from the transition from FTS2001 to Networx appears in the Transition Handbook.
2 Scope
2.1 Definition of Transition
A transition is a movement from expiring ETS contracts to the replacement or successor
contracts. Transitions can be: 1) administrative, in which services move “like-for-like”
from an incumbent supplier’s contract to the same supplier’s replacement contracts; 2)
physical, whereby service moves from an expiring contract to a different supplier’s
replacement contract; or 3) transformative, in which the service is converted during the
transition, such as to replace a legacy service with a newer technology, improved
functionality, or expanded reach.

The EIS Transition is defined as the movement of services from the expiring Networx,
WITS 3, and Regional local service contracts to EIS. The transition period began with
project planning activities in 2014 and continues through the disconnection of all services
from the contracts that expire. As it is often difficult to separate new services from
transitioning services and to correlate services ordered on EIS with those they may be
replacing, it may be appropriate to include within the scope of transition new services that
are logically related to services transitioning.
2.2 Expiring Contracts
There are approximately 94 expiring contracts that comprise the portfolio of Networx,
WITS 3, and Regional local service contracts. The eight Networx contracts were
considered for extension from their initial expiration of 2017. The three Networx Universal
v.5.1, June 28, 2022 2
contracts—held by AT&T, CenturyLink, and Verizon---were originally extended to March
2020. Sprint elected not to extend its Networx Enterprise contract, and it expired in May
2017. The remaining four Networx Enterprise contracts along with the two WITS 3
contracts and most Regional local service contracts that would have expired prior to May
2020 were extended to that timeframe to allow for transition to EIS.

In October 2018, GSA announced its intent to extend the expiring telecommunications
contracts up to three years (one year base with two one-year options) to further enable
modernization and transition execution, pending commitment by agencies to maintain
momentum on EIS transition and network modernization. GSA set ambitious milestones
for the transition program, and due to the complexity and magnitude of the transition,
agencies are not meeting those milestones. Additionally, the Report to the President on
Federal IT Modernization, published in December 2017 and emphasizing a
comprehensive look at modernizing legacy IT, enlarged the scope of agencies’ original
network plans. GSA executed this extension in 2019 for all contracts to May 2023. As a
condition of extending the expiring contracts, GSA requires agencies to meet critical
milestones to be eligible to continue using the contracts during the extended period. To
mitigate the risk that agencies cannot disconnect their services from the expiring contracts
by the target deadline of September 30, 2022 and to enforce the eligibility condition for
the extension of the expiring contracts, GSA initiated the Transition Closeout project. The
project plan for Transition Closeout is published separately on gsa.gov/eistransition.

In 2021, GSA conducted a comprehensive assessment of the risk of agencies not
transitioning their services by the extended expiration date of May 31, 2023. In February
2022, GSA decided to invoke the continuity of service (CoS) clauses for the expiring
contracts and provide agencies an additional twelve months—between June 1, 2023 and
May 31, 2024—to transition off of the expiring contracts. To be eligible for the CoS period,
an agency must execute a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with GSA. During this
CoS period, agencies must either complete their transition to EIS or find another solution
to prevent interruption of services. For additional detail, see Section 12.3.

A complete list of the expiring contracts and other pertinent information appears in
Appendix A.
3 Transition Strategy Management Plan (TSMP) Document Overview
3.1 TSMP Objective
The objective of the TSMP is to present GSA’s approach to successfully performing its
role in managing the transition from expiring contracts. It provides guidance to the GSA
transition team as well as informs agencies, contractors, other suppliers, and oversight
organizations such as Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and GAO. It
supplements the Transition Handbook, published to guide agencies through transition.
3.2 TSMP Document Scope
This document describes the strategy and plan for GSA’s transition program at the
Government-wide level for the transition to EIS.
v.5.1, June 28, 2022 3
The TSMP:

• Provides an overview of each of the characteristics of the transition effort.
• Describes the roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders.
• Explains GSA’s approach to providing transition assistance and training for
agencies.
• Discusses GSA’s approach to Government-wide transition management, including
schedule, tracking and reporting, and communications.
• Identifies the transition support tools that GSA uses and has made available to
agencies, in order to facilitate each transition activity.
• Describes risk management strategies to employ during transition.
• Describes the integrated organization within GSA’s ITC, including the Transition
Coordination Center (TCC), with interfaces to agency partners, suppliers of
telecommunications services, and government oversight organizations.

The EIS Program Office within GSA’s ETS is also developing, implementing and
executing processes for the launch and long term support of the EIS program. This
document does not describe those efforts except as relevant to transition.
4 Transition Overview
4.1 Responsibility
According to the OMB, “Agencies are individually responsible for transitioning to the next
generation of Networx. However, GSA is ultimately responsible for a successful
Government-wide transition and should take a strong leadership role in steering agencies
in the right direction, harnessing lessons learned from the previous Networx transition.”2
To fulfill that responsibility, GSA sets the transition schedule and manages transition to
meet that schedule. Accordingly, GSA helps agencies through transition; however, for
direct-order agencies (agencies that place their own orders directly with the contractors),
it is their responsibility to execute transition before the contracts expire.

For a more detailed discussion of roles and responsibilities, see Section 5, Transition
Roles and Responsibilities.
4.2 Overview of Transition Strategy
The GAO report, “Full Adoption of Sound Transition Planning Practices by GSA and
Selected Agencies Could Improve Planning Efforts,” June 2006, identified best practices
for conducting effective transition planning. In particular, GAO identified five sound
transition planning practices:

1. Establish an accurate telecommunications inventory and an inventory
maintenance process
2. Perform a strategic analysis of telecommunications requirements and use this to

2 OMB passback document (Predecisional/Deliberative), p. 12.
v.5.1, June 28, 2022 4
shape the agency’s management approach and guide efforts when identifying
resources and developing a transition plan
3. Establish a structured management approach that includes a dedicated transition
management team that uses clear lines of communications in addition to key
management processes, such as project management, configuration
management, and change management
4. Identify the funding and human capital resources that the transition effort requires
5. Develop a transition plan that includes transition objectives, measures of success,
risk assessment, and a detailed timeline.

GSA has taken a strategic role in defining transition planning, execution, management,
and stakeholders. GSA’s approach to planning for transition includes facilitating the
establishment of the inventory to be transitioned and leading the definition and resolution
of program-level factors and issues that affect transition activities. While the agencies
using services on the expiring contracts have the primary responsibility for executing
transition successfully, GSA supports the agencies by managing the contracts and
providing a Government-wide perspective on execution, which includes tracking and
facilitating issue resolution.

In concert with agency customers, suppliers, and oversight organizations, GSA has
implemented a transition strategy that capitalizes on lessons learned from previous
transitions to affect a successful transition to EIS. The key elements of this strategy are
below.
4.2.1 Involvement of the Agency’s highest levels and key functional areas
The engagement of executive management is critical to secure and focus resources
across the agency to plan and implement the transition, track progress, and identify and
respond to risks. GSA has asked each agency to identify, by name, an executive as the
Agency Transition Sponsor to serve as project champion for the transition. Another
fundamental requirement is early assignment of a Lead Transition Manager (LTM) to
develop the agency’s transition project plan and lead the transition implementation. The
agency should also identify a Transition Ordering Contracting Officer (TOCO) that fully
understands the agency’s transition requirements and timelines, understands the Federal
Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and agency’s acquisition policies, and has a repertoire of
workable approaches to meet the agency’s transition requirements.
4.2.2 Agency Transition Plan
Agencies with services on the expiring contracts must develop an Agency Transition Plan
(ATP) and provide it to GSA. See the Transition Handbook for more guidance and an
outline. GSA tracks this as a key metric to be completed by October 2016, with updates
as appropriate.
4.2.3 Early and effective support from GSA to Agencies
From the earliest agency engagements, GSA is providing tailored support to each agency
appropriate to its transition approach, especially for the contractor selection, or “Fair
Opportunity” (FO) process (see FAR Subpart 16.505). GSA worked with the existing
v.5.1, June 28, 2022 5